Isaiah 40:31

So, no job yet... That's the elephant in the blog. Now for some rhinos...

Melissa and I had an amazing visit to Chicago and a wonderful time with Brad and Jamie. They were very hospitable, and Melissa and I couldn't have had a more exciting trip. Chinatown was very interesting, particularly the smells. On our first night Brad told us we would be helping tutor at the Pui Tek Center, which caused a fair amount of dread to rise inside of me, since I am not a learned man. Melissa also felt similar feelings of doubt. However, it turned out to be exceptionally motivating and quite fascinating. Our task was simple, we had to talk about anything normal people talk about to English learning Asians, but of course I eventually ran out of things to say. After attempting to explain the meaning of the word 'alien', I drew pictures to show the difference between a boogie board (which I spelled boogey) and a surf board. Nevertheless the kind Asian fellow across from me smiled and laughed and nodded to every thing the white devil had to say. We did get to do other things as well, like walk around Chicago, see 'The Bean', ride the bus and trains, walk through the observatorium (?), eat some genuine Chinese food, and Second City was out of sight. The show was hilarious. Top rate! And overall the trip was fantastic! Thanks Brad and Jamie, you two sure know how to show a good time.

Come to think of it, I don't really know how to put pictures in here... let me try this...

Hopefully that worked...

Anyway, good news everybody! Melissa was offered a temporary position as an H.R. administrator at "the Y" (which is the new name for the YMCA) where she has been interning for the last 8 months or so. She will basically be part of a 3-person team that is covering for the head H.R. lady, who is going on maternity leave. It's very exciting for Melissa, and she will start making $14 an hour, 40 hours a week, next Monday. Which is a huge blessing since I have yet to find a job yet... :( The lady who is going on maternity leave said that I should just go serve some where, but I was hoping to avoid that notion. Unfortunately, it looks like I am running out of options. I even applied for a movie theater job... :) Luckily, money has not been an issue for us yet, mostly because the garage door company gave me two weeks severance pay, which was pretty cool. Also I've already received two weeks worth of unemployment. It's not a whole lot of money, but it has really helped us pay all our bills and rent, which means we're completely covered till late next month.

In brighter news. I received a credit on my card for not cancelling it. You see, I got a new credit card, transfered the remaining balance from my old card and attempted to cancel it. The guy I spoke with was very convincing, something to the tune of $30. So I told him I'd keep the card till the next annual fee was due and cancel then. Melissa and I applied that credit towards a new cat condo! I know what you're thinking, "What a waste of money!" But so far the kitties like it, and it wasn't all that expensive. Hopefully these pictures are working, if so, here is a blurry image from my phone of the cats enjoying a good lounge in the penthouse of the condo.

O.K., enough about cats and jobs. I'm really deciding on what to do about my VBI classes. I still have not finished my final essay from the first class I took. Fortunately, it's a European grading scheme, so time is not a priority. But, I'm finding that writing papers is not one of my fortes. It can take me days to get through a couple paragraphs, perhaps I just edit too much or over think the whole process, but it's definitely hard for me to finish. The classes are close to $500 each or $200 with scholarship, but I told them that I was going to try to pay the full cost eventually, since the money goes towards keeping the classes alive. I just feel a bit inadequate, particularly with the papers. The class itself is awesome, I love reading the material and discussing it, I'm just not a profound writer... I have already missed the first day of the next class, and Bobby emailed me asking if we can hang out or if I know if God still wants me to go to VBI, so I need to make a decision. Maybe just pray that I can sort it out, and in a timely fashion.

Well, thanks Mom for reading all this (or whoever else was crazy enough to read this entire ramble) and hopefully Melissa and I will be seeing all of you very soon!

Love,

Daniel

A Cohen Brothers-Type Update

...Meaning it is in bullet form, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

• Last week, I turned in my 2 weeks notice (while simultaneously offering to teach an addition two weeks, making it veritably 1 month's notice). Instead of wishing me well, my boss gave me a typical Chinese guilt trip. This made me sad.
• I am now doing freelance work full time -- part of my time going to editing with McGraw-Hill (where I get $45/hr), the rest spread between:
• editing and contributing to the upcoming book The Process Report 2011 about the Rays,
• maintaining the Cubs Stats blog while working on our upcoming and yet-titled book (we hope to release it by the All-Star Break),
• completing the first draft of my labor of love, Scone the Rat, the novel I have put ~3 full years of labor into,
• continue writing on Homebody Abroad and submitting short stories and poems to contests,
• and completing a graphic novel script I am preparing to pitch to dad. I don't feel like he liked my idea when I initially mentioned it to him, so I building a base of research before I give him my second pitch.
• Things are going well with our church, Cornerstone. I sat in on a bylaws committee yesterday, which was kind of a bummer because everyone but me wants a traditional western church structure: the whole membership, voting, an-elder-trumps-a-deacon format. Oh well, not everyone can be Eastgate. :(
• Because my (technically second) Christmas grift to Jamie fell through (a Groupon for yoga), we used a gift certificate (and some hard-earned cashed) to purchase an XBOX Kinect and the game Dance Central. Both are amazing.
• In some pretty sad news, it sounds like about ~75% of our friends are allergic to cats. My dreams of becoming an old cat lady, well I guess "man," will have to wait until our (hopeful and eventual) return to Florida.
• It's starting to feel like: Us returning to Florida = Paul's intentions to visit Rome (i.e. talked about often, yet only accomplished post-incarceration).

That's all of which I can think.

I love you guys!

Sitting

I like sitting.  I realized that all the times that I'm not sitting I am counting down to when I can sit again.  I used to think my focus was always on food, but now I'm thinking that my focus is on sitting as often as possible and in the absolute most comfortable place I can find.

Here are some of my recent thoughts:

I really like stuff.  I like furniture stuff the best I think.  When I go to sleep I create a wishlist in my head of all the stuff I want- A bed frame, a square soft foot rest to go in the living room that has storage inside, storage organizers (not for anything in particular just to have in case I can find something to organize at home), tupperware, and chalk board paint.  I have to watch myself because I am constantly swaying over into materialism.

So right now in my life: Work is going really well and there is a good chance (but I don't have my hopes up) that I could get a promotion at work.  This promotion would mean a lot of extra work but would give me a raise, benefits, full time employment, and bossy privileges.   They keep putting off when they will open up the position, but that's good because I haven't polished my resume yet.

Matt is doing well at work.  He just texted me saying someone gave him a 10$ tip- I wonder where I can spend that...  He is in talks with Scott McCuchen about a job opportunity so if you want to be praying about that.  We don't know when that would start but he would quit the Marriott to work with him on a new business Scott's going to get going on (but I'll let Matt tell that story)

... I just painted a Kidsgate sign with colorful hand prints around it at Eastgate and that was fun and now I'm looking for other places I can add spice to.

Matt and I have a lot of fun trips coming up.  In March we're going to Islands of Adventure with Zach, Dayle, Leah and Thomas and  in April we're going to GA for Matt's Grandpa's 80th birthday.  We're also going to Gainesville in April for Ben Wallis' wedding and in May we're going to Maine for a week with the Greene's.

Okay, love you guys!! Thanks for keeping this thing alive

-Janelleeeeeee

Bored to death

I have too much time off. I don't do well with it.

In other news the planning for Italy is going along well. We're going to be gone for 12 days and two of them will be travel days. Here's a screen shot of my spreadsheet of our trip.





We've only got where we're going to stay in Florence figured out. Here's the link to the hostel in case you're interested.
http://www.florence-youth-hostel.com

I think I'm most excited about our time in Cinque Terre (Cheenk-kway tehr-ray.) It's a group of five coastal towns that have a hiking trail between all of them. They're small and cute and I can't wait! Apparently if you were to just hike straight it would be 5 hours, but we're going to take all day and stop in each town and explore. It just sounds cute and quaint and I can't wait.
If you're curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre

Work has been slow. Here's a logo and letterhead I designed for my boss's hotel. (Yes, he just bought a hotel - they're super rich.) He's also planning a trip around the world with his family this summer. But he's nice and down to earth so I can't hate him. ;)



















Well, that's the latest. Hope you all are doing well. Love you lots!

BRRRizzard!

It makes me sad that we don't post more often!

Here is a quick update:

Currently, it is blizzarding outside, which outside of the constant sirens and our apartment shaking a little, is pretty awesome!

[Living Room View]

Blizzard = two Snow Days! Thankfully, we are stocked up on all the best things, like puzzles, hot chocolate, Netflix, Sims,...

[Hardest Puzzle Ever!]

Chinese New Year is just around the corner! Thursday, we have friends coming over to make dumplings. Brad and I are hoping that we can coax them into making some chocolate ones too.

[Preparations Begin]

Meanwhile, Brad is keeping busy with baseball posts, teaching, and making videos. He also got me interested in reading a book about baseball: The Bullpen Gospels. It's funny!

I'm doing my usual school and work stuff. I've also been hanging out with a new friend. A month or two ago, I started praying for a friend - someone to watch chick flicks with or go shopping, and someone who is a Christian, so we can encourage/challenge eachother. (Not to say that I'm not super thankful for Brad, who is an amazing and loving husband. He just doesn't always share my enthusiasm for girly stuff.) Anyway, I'm pretty sure that my prayer was answered! God is good to us :)

Well, that's pretty much all the excitement here. We miss you guys a ton!

Hurry, someone else make a post!

Bradley Woodrum Bradley Woodrum Bradley Woodrum

Up to what has Bradley Woodrum been? An excellent question, Brad. Among other things, I have been engaged whole-heartedly in a campaign of Passion, a journey of Excellence, and noble pursuit of Americanism: I have been trying to get a million cat/kitten images to appear in a Google image search (GIS) for "Bradley Woodrum" and "Brad Woodrum."

Step one of this devious plan is to, you guessed it, write "Bradley Woodrum" or "Brad Woodrum" in blog-posts featuring cats slash kittens.

My less-noble, more-boring, recent pursuits include:

1) Teaching my ESL classes in Chinatown. Helping out at Cornerstone.
2) Doing some freelance editing for McGraw-Hill.
3) Finishing up my last few RU classes.
4) Writing for DRaysBay, where they treat me like, eh, maybe the son of a demi-god? Yeah, not great or anything, but they at least recognize me and say stuff like, "I think I kind of like your writing."
5) Polishing up a short story for a writing contest.
6) Learning how to write the word "meow" in Chinese. 咪.

My ESL Classes
I feel very fortunate to say I love the place I'm in right now. I really like teacher -- even though it can be a real strain sometimes -- and I suspect I'm decent at it. I can easily picture myself teaching for a while. And, with the possibility of decent income coming my way via freelance writing/editing, I should be able to work at the Pui Tak Center and still put noodles on the table.

Jamie and I have also taken leadership roles at Cornerstone (the church that formed out of our old church in Chinatown). We really love Cornerstone! It's a collection of great friends and genuine, God-fearing and God-loving people. Jamie has started helping with Hospitality and Greeting, and I'm currently serving the Children's Ministry and Worship Ministry (they want me to learn more keyboard, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!).

I really have a burden for the Youth Ministry, though, but unfortunately we don't have any youths. So, since half the church is under age 13, the plan is to help with and learn from the Children's Ministry while we wait for the kids to get older, which can take any unknown amount of time. I'm told children age at different rates, but they don't seem to be aging at all. Go figure.

Fall Is Here

Well, it feels that the cooler weather is on it's way...and for some reason, I'm not quite ready to let go of summer yet. I've decided to have one more cookout/volleyball game which will have to take place some time in mid-late October just to try and make it last a little longer. So far there will be M&J, Dayle and Zach and Malcolm. I think probably mom & C, as well as Riley & Lynn too.

Janelle & I just finished a co-project for the upcoming Wardlow baby. Here's a photo:
Janelle found a website that shows you how to make your own stuffed animal, which ended up being pretty easy. It was really fun to do too. Sorry it's sideways.

Things have been going really well at Eastgate, especially since M&J have gotten here. The worship has gotten a much needed boost for which we are all grateful, including Riley.

Connor is turning 10 in a few days and has a big party planned. We will be out of town for the Jags game, so I'll miss it...any gift ideas would be much appreciated. I thought of movie tickets for a man-date with Matt and/or Rob & Riley to watch a guy movie and Connor says he wants some legos and video games.

Here's one more photo I took yesterday from the yard, I'm real proud of my hibiscus. We had some serious rain last night! Burning House was going to be on the beach but because of the rain it was inside. We're gonna try next month.

Dad's plans for the Sudan are starting to come together, but I'll let him update you on that. The dates will be November 15-December 2, and he will be going with Tom Randles who will stay for at least a year and Dave Pierce who will travel to and fro with dad. He is also taking the first two weeks of October off, but there are 3 trips planned during that time. One to J'ville for the game, one to Tennessee to stay in a cabin for 3 days and one to Merritt Island for a pastor's day.

I'm looking forward to hearing back from all of you kids-in fact, that is my only reason for making this post. ;o) So, please update your goings-on as soon as you have time in your busy lives. Love to you all

Mom